Hello ! My homework is now to make a Book Report of a new short story by Edgar Allan Poe : The Mask of the Red Death.

You can clic here to download the text. 

Book Report

Title : The Masque of the Red Death

Author : Edgar Allan Poe

Date of publication : 1842 in the Graham's Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine

Setting : Probably in the Middle Age, in the Prince Prospero's dominions. 

Characters : Prince Prospero > The prince of a village devasted by a strange disease. 

Thousand courtiers > They are locked up in the Prince's Castle to escape to the Red Death.

The person in red > During the party in the Castle, Prospero makes out a strange character in red, but nobody know his indentity. 

Plot and personal opinion : The Red Death is a disease who devastes a country, and sow the terror and the panic. The Prince of this country, Prospero, shuts himself away in his fortified castle, with thousand courtiers. They live in luxury and pleasure, ignorant the terrible disease, which strikes down the population. Althought the poor people die, they make party. One night, Prince Prospero organise a masquarade in seven room of his Castle, which are decorated with differents colours : blue, purple, green, furnished and lighted with orange, white, violet. The seventh room is closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries and lighted with the colour of the blood. In this room, there is a big clock, which rings every hour. Nobody goes in this room because it 's very worrisome. During the night, we make out a strange person with a mysterious clothe, like a shroud. Prospero wants know who is this person, but nobody answer. He decides to discover the identity of the frightening guest...

This short story is very exciting and worrisome. There is a lot of suspense and scary elements. The end is surprising and also gloom. But it's a little bit long and there is many complicated vocabulary.  However, the author' style is excellent and very fascinating. Poe is a génius in gothic literature and this text proves it. 

Attention readers, you cannot maybe sleep any more later...

Study of the Poe' style  

I picked up some elements to characterize the style of Edgar Allan Poe. 

Imagery : Sound > "all is silent save the voice of the clock", "to be sounded by the bell of the clock"

Aliteration : "glare and glitter", "of terror,of horror"

Simile :"the wild music of the orchestra to seem as the echo of their steps". 

Metaphor : "in them beat feverishly the heart of life", symbolizes the group of persons, whichs is still alive. 

Is this story gothic ?

In the last lesson, we had a paper about the gothic literature. Now, let us see if this short story answers the characteristics of the gothic literature.

1. Setting in a castle. YES

2. An atmosphere of mystery and suspense. YES

3. An ancient prophecy. NO

4. Omens, portents, visions. NO (not sure, is the Red Death a vision ?)

5. Supernatural or otherwise inexplicable events. YES

6. High, even overwrought emotion. YES (?)

7. Women in distress. NO

8. Women threatened by a powerful, impulsive, tyrannical male. NO

9. Metonymy of gloom and horror. YES

10. The Vocabluary of the gothic. YES 

We are 6 elements (on 10), so yes, this is a gothic short story ! 

To better understand the story, you can see this short animation :